Spoken with Tears

“Thus you shall say to Joseph, “Please forgive, I beg you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they did you wrong.” Genesis 50:17

I beg you – Sometime in your life, maybe more than once, you will experience a need for forgiveness that goes beyond asking.  Words will be useless.  As your whole body agonizes with remorse, you will speak with tears, silently pleading to have the guilt lifted.  At that moment, Hebrew has a sound for you.  Annah.  It is not so much a word as it is a cry.  It is the heart-wrenching release of a soul’s torment in the face of intimate unworthiness.

Joseph’s brothers are in agony.  They need his forgiveness for their cruelty and hatred.  They have no reason to expect Joseph to forgive.  In fact, they expect punishment.  When they come before him, they cry out, annah.  The torment of the soul gushes forth.  Annah, “I beg”.  This is more than “please”.  “Please forgive” has already been spoken.  This is pure brokenness, a sound from the depths of human despair.  It is the desperate plea to make things right in my soul.

The Bible says that a day will come for all those who refuse God’s freely offered gift of redemption when annah will be the only sound they can make.  Because they are unfamiliar with its cry, this final annah will fall on the deaf ears of the Judge of all the earth.  You see, annah is a sound that requires practice beforehand.  It might not be a word in your Hebrew vocabulary, but it must become a sound of your heart.  Annah is me fallen before my master begging for him to set me free from the guilt and grief that I bear for my actions.  If I do not learn to utter the sound of annah while He is willing to hear it, I will arrive at a place where annah is the only sound I know.  I will never be able to hear the answer to annah:  “I forgive”.

Learning to utter annah will put you in good company.  Moses (Exodus 32:31), Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:3), David (Psalm 118:25), Isaiah (Isaiah 38:3), Daniel (Daniel 9:4) and even Jonah (Jonah 1:14) cried annah before God.

There is no more important sound to practice in all your life.